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The Risks of Big Gaming Acquisitions [Gameindustry.biz]

Ozriel

M$FT
Buying an indie studio that Sony funded is not comparable to buying the biggest third party publisher that was in no way strapped for cash

This false equivalency is comical

You were up in arms about the Bethesda purchase also, and they weren’t anywhere close to being the ‘biggest third party publisher’

I think it’s well established that YOU have zero moral oppositions to consolidation or acquisitions as long as it’s your favorite company doing them.

6KnCB5X.jpg



You: “I’d LOVE Sony to intelligently buy multiple multiplatform developers and IP. That’s be great! Remedy, all of Konami’s historically multi-platform IP, From Software and Kojima!”


Also you: “how dare Microsoft buy a collection of Multiplatform developers in one go?!! That’s taking things too far!”
 

anothertech

Member
If you think about it, Ms was about a year too late. Just over a year ago, this acquisition would have bought them Bungee and Destiny. Can you imagine lol
 

Ozriel

M$FT
If you think about it, Ms was about a year too late. Just over a year ago, this acquisition would have bought them Bungee and Destiny. Can you imagine lol

I believe Activision merely had a 10 year deal with Bungie, not really owned them. 10 years would be elapsing next year.
 
You were up in arms about the Bethesda purchase also, and they weren’t anywhere close to being the ‘biggest third party publisher’

I think it’s well established that YOU have zero moral oppositions to consolidation or acquisitions as long as it’s your favorite company doing them.

6KnCB5X.jpg



You: “I’d LOVE Sony to intelligently buy multiple multiplatform developers and IP. That’s be great! Remedy, all of Konami’s historically multi-platform IP, From Software and Kojima!”


Also you: “how dare Microsoft buy a collection of Multiplatform developers in one go?!! That’s taking things too far!”

More false equivalencies. Big difference between unused IP and buying outright the biggest third party publisher in the world
 
As soon as Kena showed up and as soon as they won that award, this forum was awash with wishful posts asking Sony to buy Ember Labs.

Here’s yours.

zDEMThQ.jpg


Here, you acknowledge 6 acquisitions in 2021 and state that you expect even more from Sony in 2022. You’re even perfectly fine with thoughts of Sony buying Remedy. And you’re fine with them buying Kena even though it’s pitched as a timed-exclusive multiplatform IP, owned by Ember Labs.

So…acquisitions seem to be fine if Sony’s doing it, and it’s terrible if you buy a publisher with 8 sub-studios but perfectly fine to scoop up multiple studios piecemeal.
Imagine searching my post history and putting words in my mouth even with a print screen proving i didn't say any of that. Did you even read my post right?

You say and i quote "You’re even perfectly fine with thoughts of Sony buying Remedy". Where exactly did i write that i wanted ANY acquisition to happen on that post, let alone Remedy? I said and i quote "i do think Remedy was once on their radar". How you went from that to "you're fine with Sony acquiring Remedy" i'll never know.

Realizing Sony will keep buying studios has also NOTHING to do with what i wish for them to do. It's what i think they will do. I never said "i hope Sony buys more studios" anywhere on that post.

That entire post you so proudly searched is just what i predict Sony to do and i stand by that entire post word by word.

One last thing, i don't like acquisitions. As someone that plays videogames and someone that plays on Playstation, i simply have no intentions of losing 3rd party IPs that i care about, specially from Square-Enix, Capcom, Konami. So if Sony acquires them, i wouldn't be happy for that. I would be simply relieved for the reason stated above.

Most of my posts talking about acquisitions are about what i predict these companies to do. Not me championing for them to happen.
 

PaintTinJr

Member
Biden’s tweet plainly says ‘dominate the market’ and ‘consume the competition’


Good luck convincing anyone that Xbox dominated the US console market last gen. Or that Activision was ‘competition’ for Xbox 😀


Do people really hate reading these days?
Those two things are surely different, no?

Xbox from it's market position certainly isn't buying Activision, so the competition question is about the part of the company paying the bill for the acquisition - Windows - and its intents, No?

Windows has been #1 in its market for years and has been accused by many of the ‘dominate the market’ and ‘consume the competition’ AFAIR. Given that Gamepass is the beneficiary of the acquisitions, gamepass really belongs to Microsoft, not Xbox IMHO, so competition should be looking at the wider picture of why they'd spend more on acquisitions than the entire Xbox division is worth.

edit:
I believe this is all wrapped up in Windows proprietary APIs being pushed across all OSes to increase Windows' dominance, and the wierdly unexplained/unjustified TPM requirements for Windows 11 might be all part of the equation and bigger picture too is my guess.
 
Last edited:

Ozriel

M$FT
Those two things are surely different, no?

Xbox from it's market position certainly isn't buying Activision, so the competition question is about the part of the company paying the bill for the acquisition - Windows - and its intents, No?

Windows has been #1 in its market for years and has been accused by many of the ‘dominate the market’ and ‘consume the competition’ AFAIR. Given that Gamepass is the beneficiary of the acquisitions, gamepass really belongs to Microsoft, not Xbox IMHO, so competition should be looking at the wider picture of why they'd spend more on acquisitions than the entire Xbox division is worth.

I’ll point out, in line with your logic, that ‘Microsoft’ isn’t ‘Windows’. And nobody’s pushed the monopoly angle to Windows for well over a decade now. Not since mobile OSes became the dominant computing platform.

It doesn’t really matter what part of the business is providing the cash. In the gaming space, Microsoft is nowhere near a dominant force. Not on mobile, not on PC (where Valve is king) and not on home console where PlayStation significantly outsold them and where they’ve been trailing Nintendo in hardware and software units.
 

PaintTinJr

Member
I’ll point out, in line with your logic, that ‘Microsoft’ isn’t ‘Windows’. And nobody’s pushed the monopoly angle to Windows for well over a decade now. Not since mobile OSes became the dominant computing platform.

It doesn’t really matter what part of the business is providing the cash. In the gaming space, Microsoft is nowhere near a dominant force. Not on mobile, not on PC (where Valve is king) and not on home console where PlayStation significantly outsold them and where they’ve been trailing Nintendo in hardware and software units.
See my edit. used proprietary APIs is still where they dominate by market share versus unix-eq(Linux, Andorid, IOS, MacOS). Microsoft have been much better a porting stuff, but if they don't do a gamepass client for SteamOS, is it possible for a 3rd party to write one from published specs. AFAIK, the answer will be no.
 

Alphagear

Member
Every investment involves a risk though spending 70 billion on a publisher seems crazy to me especially considering most their IPs are way past their peak.

Makes Bethesda look like a good buy.
 
You were up in arms about the Bethesda purchase also, and they weren’t anywhere close to being the ‘biggest third party publisher’

I think it’s well established that YOU have zero moral oppositions to consolidation or acquisitions as long as it’s your favorite company doing them.

6KnCB5X.jpg



You: “I’d LOVE Sony to intelligently buy multiple multiplatform developers and IP. That’s be great! Remedy, all of Konami’s historically multi-platform IP, From Software and Kojima!”


Also you: “how dare Microsoft buy a collection of Multiplatform developers in one go?!! That’s taking things too far!”
Look how cute you are trying to get a gotcha moment here. It's adorable you think that changes anything he just said, which is true.
 

Swift_Star

Banned
As soon as Kena showed up and as soon as they won that award, this forum was awash with wishful posts asking Sony to buy Ember Labs.

Here’s yours.

zDEMThQ.jpg


Here, you acknowledge 6 acquisitions in 2021 and state that you expect even more from Sony in 2022. You’re even perfectly fine with thoughts of Sony buying Remedy. And you’re fine with them buying Kena even though it’s pitched as a timed-exclusive multiplatform IP, owned by Ember Labs.

So…acquisitions seem to be fine if Sony’s doing it, and it’s terrible if you buy a publisher with 8 sub-studios but perfectly fine to scoop up multiple studios piecemeal.
What multiplat million selling IPs do Ember Lab own? You people are extremely disingenuous and that says A LOT about this acquisition. That you can’t come up with points without revisionism and mixing this up is pretty telling.
 

Swift_Star

Banned
You were up in arms about the Bethesda purchase also, and they weren’t anywhere close to being the ‘biggest third party publisher’

I think it’s well established that YOU have zero moral oppositions to consolidation or acquisitions as long as it’s your favorite company doing them.

6KnCB5X.jpg



You: “I’d LOVE Sony to intelligently buy multiple multiplatform developers and IP. That’s be great! Remedy, all of Konami’s historically multi-platform IP, From Software and Kojima!”


Also you: “how dare Microsoft buy a collection of Multiplatform developers in one go?!! That’s taking things too far!”
Another bad take. Really bad take. You can’t help yourself. Again: one of those things are not like the others. Activision own multiple million selling multiplat IPs. That not comparable. Don’t try to save face, you’re only going to embarrass yourself further.
 

Excess

Member
You were up in arms about the Bethesda purchase also, and they weren’t anywhere close to being the ‘biggest third party publisher’

I think it’s well established that YOU have zero moral oppositions to consolidation or acquisitions as long as it’s your favorite company doing them.

6KnCB5X.jpg



You: “I’d LOVE Sony to intelligently buy multiple multiplatform developers and IP. That’s be great! Remedy, all of Konami’s historically multi-platform IP, From Software and Kojima!”


Also you: “how dare Microsoft buy a collection of Multiplatform developers in one go?!! That’s taking things too far!”
 

Shmunter

Member
As a businessman myself, all's fair in a free economy...to a point where the 'free' suffers. I'm not sure this deal is that big a deal.

But putting logic aside, it certainly is un-sportsman like. It is not Xbox money that bankrolled the purchase of a gaming company, it is windows & office that paid the bill. Quintessential bludgeoning into a sector through means unavailable to others. Rich get fatter, etc.
 
As a businessman myself, all's fair in a free economy...to a point where the 'free' suffers. I'm not sure this deal is that big a deal.

But putting logic aside, it certainly is un-sportsman like. It is not Xbox money that bankrolled the purchase of a gaming company, it is windows & office that paid the bill. Quintessential bludgeoning into a sector through means unavailable to others. Rich get fatter, etc.

Dang, Microsoft forgot that you have to section off your money and only use a division's revenue on itself. Once you start using other money that's cheating
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Another bad take. Really bad take. You can’t help yourself. Again: one of those things are not like the others. Activision own multiple million selling multiplat IPs. That not comparable. Don’t try to save face, you’re only going to embarrass yourself further.


I could point out that Konami and From Software own multiple million selling multiplat IPs, but you did fervently appeal to me not to respond.


Man, do you even read what you type before you hit Send?
 
I do wonder how ms is gonna manage all their studios now. Gonna need an army of producers and upper management people to get it up and running smoothly. They cant just like release the next halo the week after cod now.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
What multiplat million selling IPs do Ember Lab own? You people are extremely disingenuous and that says A LOT about this acquisition. That you can’t come up with points without revisionism and mixing this up is pretty telling.

While we don’t know Kena’s sales figures (even though Ember Labs has described them as ‘amazing’), the studio themselves have confirmed that the IP is multiplatform and a timed exclusive.

I love how you snuck in ‘million-selling’ to muddy the waters. But it does prove that you’re not reading. Because I’ve noted that while the overall scope might differ, the intent is similar.
 
I could point out that Konami and From Software own multiple million selling multiplat IPs, but you did fervently appeal to me not to respond.


Man, do you even read what you type before you hit Send?

My comment was basically in response to "what would you do if you were Sony" and not "what do I think is necessarily good for the industry"

They are not the same thing. While Sony buying Konami IP would be a good thing (IMHO - because Konami isn't using it at all), I would actually rather FromSoft and Remedy stay third party since they already have success being multiplat. Team Kojima is mostly a Sony-funded studio though and I think they work well together with Guerrilla so their acquisition would be good for the industry just like Insomniac was.

They were examples of small studio acquisitions that could bolster Sony's stable of first party, but not take anything massive away from Microsoft like Microsoft is doing to Sony right now.
 
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phil_t98

#SonyToo
As a businessman myself, all's fair in a free economy...to a point where the 'free' suffers. I'm not sure this deal is that big a deal.

But putting logic aside, it certainly is un-sportsman like. It is not Xbox money that bankrolled the purchase of a gaming company, it is windows & office that paid the bill. Quintessential bludgeoning into a sector through means unavailable to others. Rich get fatter, etc.

Sony used the money from p[laystation to balance their books, Sony was struggling at one point but PlayStation was a huge success, you can’t complain where these companies put their money. Its there to be used in anyway they see fit
 

Ozriel

M$FT
As a businessman myself, all's fair in a free economy...to a point where the 'free' suffers. I'm not sure this deal is that big a deal.

But putting logic aside, it certainly is un-sportsman like. It is not Xbox money that bankrolled the purchase of a gaming company, it is windows & office that paid the bill. Quintessential bludgeoning into a sector through means unavailable to others. Rich get fatter, etc.

And the takes get more and more strange. Wasn't it MS money that set up the Xbox division in the first place?

Might as well demand zero integration between Playstation, Sony Pictures and Sony music.
 

Swift_Star

Banned
I could point out that Konami and From Software own multiple million selling multiplat IPs, but you did fervently appeal to me not to respond.


Man, do you even read what you type before you hit Send?
They said to buy a Konami ip, not the whole company. Again, don’t try, you suck at this.
 

Swift_Star

Banned
While we don’t know Kena’s sales figures (even though Ember Labs has described them as ‘amazing’), the studio themselves have confirmed that the IP is multiplatform and a timed exclusive.

I love how you snuck in ‘million-selling’ to muddy the waters. But it does prove that you’re not reading. Because I’ve noted that while the overall scope might differ, the intent is similar.
So, is Kena comparable to CoD? You really, really suck at this. Your arguments make no sense at all. Sorry. Just move along. 😂
 

Swift_Star

Banned
ALL Konami IPs was the context there. Confirmed by his posts in this thread.



Never said it was comparable in scope. Reading is hard, eh? :messenger_grinning:
It's not comparable at all. But go on, keep thinking you had gotcha moments here if that will make you sleep at night. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 

Three

Member
Biden’s tweet plainly says ‘dominate the market’ and ‘consume the competition’


Good luck convincing anyone that Xbox dominated the US console market last gen. Or that Activision was ‘competition’ for Xbox 😀


Do people really hate reading these days?
This assumes MS/xbox isn't a publisher. It is. In fact that's where the money in the actual business is. It is competing for game and microtransaction sales.
 
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